Imported from France about 1900, the first German Kabarett was established in Berlin by Baron Ernst von Wolzogen. It retained the intimate atmosphere, entertainment platform, and improvisational character of the French cabaret but developed its own characteristic gallows humour. By the late 1920s the German cabaret gradually had come to feature mildly risqué musical entertainment for the middle-class man, as well as biting political and social satire. It was also a centre for underground political and literary movements.
